So Chris and I leave at lunchtime to head out. Of course we’re already ‘late’, but that’s to be expected. Now we stop for food and get stuck in traffic trying to leave Raleigh (out 64E). I think it took 2hrs just to actually leave Raleigh. Ugh. Another two hours later we come upon a hurricane. No, not a hockey player or fan, but an abnormal weather pattern that can kill.
The sky is fine. The sky is dark. Rain is pelted our car. Sounds like hail. Wind is blowing. Hard. Can’t see. Cars pulling over. And now, just 2 cars in front of us, we see a white car do a 360 in the highway and shoot off the side. Freaky. All stop. The car was motionless but had not hit anyone or anything. Finally people can tell they are ok and slowly go around. The rain lightens, the wind slows and the sky brightens a little. Soon all is back to normal, but it was weird just the same.
Which was pretty much the sentiment for the entire trip. And now we’re traveling through shanty towns. Farm fields and run down buildings as far as the eye can see. I’ve never been big into politics, but if I had to vote, I’d vote for any man that actually made his own signs. I don’t mean designed his own with a stupid slogan, I mean made his own. As in the hand-painted “Willie Williams for Sheriff” signs we saw. That’s grass roots campaigning at it’s best. Down with the establishment, the rich, The Man, hell yeah.
Although also near and dear to my heart was having a midget for a Sheriff. Or was that Midgett? The former would actually be pretty scary. People may at first think they would not take a midget Sheriff seriously, but upon getting caught at their first crime, they would quickly reconsider. A normal Sheriff would point his gun at you and say, “stop or I’ll have to shoot.” As would a midget Sheriff. The difference is a regular Sheriff would lazily be holding his pistol at either gut or heart height, whereas the midget would be aiming for your balls. There would be a lot less crime if midgets were Sheriffs, that’s all I’m saying.
We were also amused by signs and stores. Children Crossing. Bicycle Crossing. Deere Crossing 6 miles (is it too much to ask for them to stick closer together?). Geese Crossing (as Chris aptly pointed out – can’t geese fly?). We also saw what we guessed was an antelope or something. And every town had a least one Barbeque-Seafood store. Was that BBQ and Seafood or BBQ’ed Seafood? Turns out I think both. Ugh.
Of course we saw may mobile homes along the way, and farm equipment. And a house that was apparently preparing for war. Outside the house was a nice 2 foot tall wall of brick, about 10 feet in front of the house. It was obviously built to keep out one of two things – alligators or midget Sheriffs.